The art is generally aware of aerosol dispensers for dispensing pressurized materials into the air while the device is sitting on a table or other level surface. See Adams, U.S. Pat. No. 5,358,147, and Miller et al., PCT International Application, Publication No. WO96/08425. The device sold by S. C. Johnson & Son, Inc. of Racine, Wisconsin, under the mark "Lasting Mist.RTM." is an example of a commercial product. This device is intended to dispense a perfume into the air as an air freshener.
The Lasting Mist.RTM. device has a body that accepts a replaceable cartridge, which a user inserts into a downwardly open cartridge receptacle. The cartridge has an aerosol can with a valve stem that communicates with an upwardly extending nozzle. The nozzle protrudes from the top of the body of the device, when the cartridge is in place, and the base of the cartridge protrudes from the base of the device. A user places the device on a table or other level surface, supported by the base of the cartridge, and presses downwardly on the body. The aerosol can is activated by downward pressure transmitted from the body to the valve stem of the aerosol can.
The Lasting Mist.RTM. device delivers a harmless perfume so that it is of no particular concern to a user if droplets of the spray land on the user. Consequently, the Lasting Mist.RTM. device sprays directly upwardly and with no provision for holding the device in any particular orientation with respect to the user. However, if insect control ingredients are included in a material that is being spayed, for example, a user might well find direct exposure to sprayed droplets to be offensive, even if the droplets were not in fact harmful.
An ongoing need still exists in the art for an aerosol dispenser that is designed to be useable while sitting on a level surface, that accepts a replaceable refill cartridge, and that delivers a spray in a pre-determined direction that is both upward and away from a user of the device.